Have you ever noticed how Tommy from Rugrats sounds just like one of the Powerpuff Girls? Or that Scooby-Doo and Astro from The Jetsons speak very similar dog languages?
Hollywood’s voice-acting community is full of really talented people who can churn out a bunch of different voices, but that doesn’t mean they don’t occasionally have characters that end up sounding exactly alike (it doesn’t help that this group of performers is relatively small).
To that end, here are 10 sets of cartoon characters whose voices are practically interchangeable…
Scooby-Doo and Astro
The Jetsons, which debuted as a prime-time show in 1962, is considered a classic today, but it didn’t gain that status until the 1980s when it re-debuted on Saturday mornings with new episodes. And so, when Scooby-Doo came along in 1969, six years after The Jetsons was canceled, voice actor Don Messick thought nothing of re-using Astro’s voice for the brand new, mystery-solving dog.
Tommy Pickles and Buttercup
Fun fact #1: Buttercup from The Powerpuff Girls and Tommy Pickles from Rugrats are both voiced by E.G. Daily (Buttercup just with more attitude than the lumpy-headed Tommy). Fun fact #2: Daily played Dottie in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
Raphael and Donatello
When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were relaunched for Nickelodeon in 2012, showrunner Ciro Nieli wanted to honor the history of the franchise, so he cast Rob Paulsen, the original Raphael, as his new Donatello.
Bob Belcher and Coach McGuirk
H. Jon Benjamin’s voice is all over modern animation. You can currently hear it as Bob from Bob’s Burgers, but Benjamin also played Coach McGuirk on the Adult Swim show Home Movies as well as Benjamin Katz in Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
The Mad Hatter and King Candy
Unlike the previous entries, the Mad Hatter from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph didn’t have the same voice actor — the movies were released 61 years apart, after all. They sound alike, though, because when Alan Tudyk performed King Candy’s voice, he was doing a dead-on impression of legendary vaudeville comedian Ed Wynn, who voiced The Mad Hatter.
Kermit and Ernie
Jim Henson might have been a visionary, but his vocal stylings had their limits, which is why there isn’t much of a difference between Kermit and Ernie sonically. Henson also used pretty much the same voice for Rowlf the Dog and Doctor Teeth, except Doctor Teeth is more growly.
Marty Sherman and Gosalyn Mallard
Jay Sherman’s son Marty from The Critic was voiced by the late Christine Cavanaugh, who supplied the voices for a lot of cartoon characters, including Gosalyn Mallard from Darkwing Duck. The characters only debuted three years apart, but they had totally separate demographics. And besides their voices, they’re really nothing alike. Case in point: One of them is a duck.
Peter Griffin and Ted
When Ted came out in 2012, Seth MacFarlane had already been doing his Peter Griffin voice on Family Guy for 13 years; yet he decided to do the exact same voice for the crude teddy bear. IMHO, once a voice reaches a certain level of fame, it should be reserved for only that character. Just think how weird it would be if Homer Simpson’s voice suddenly showed up as an animal sidekick in a Disney movie — no one would ever allow that.
Orson Welles and The Brain
Pinky and The Brain were based on animation writers Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton, but voice actor Maurice LaMarche didn’t know that when he was asked to voice The Brain in Animaniacs, so he did an impression of his favorite actor, Orson Welles. It ended up being a perfect match for the megalomaniac mouse, and it stuck.
LaMarche even warmed up for the character by repeating Welles’ infamous radio tape where he’s bickering with a voice director, and Brain’s “Nyah!” originated from a wine commercial starring a drunken Welles.
In addition to The Brain, LaMarche has done his spot-on Orson Welles impression for The Simpsons, The Critic and the movie Ed Wood, among others.
Stimpy and Larry Fine
When Billy West did the voice for Stimpy, he was doing an impression of Larry Fine from The Three Stooges. And for those sticklers out there who want to tell me that Larry Fine wasn’t a cartoon character, the man voiced several different animated versions of himself — not to mention, the Three Stooges were pretty much live-action cartoon characters anyway.